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Facebook2 Miami Valley caregivers honored at fundraiser
The Cancer Society and Hospice of Dayton sponsored the awards.
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DAYTON — Angela Snyder had mixed feelings about accepting the Caregiver Award at the Oct. 15 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event.
“I appreciate this award, but I’d rather have my mother back,” she told the crowd of 9,000 gathered at Fifth Third Field for the American Cancer Society’s fundraiser.
The awards, given for the second time this year, are designed to celebrate caregivers and their special role in the fight against cancer. Snyder, who lives in Union, was the winner in the nonprofessional caregiver category.
Anastasia Christopher of Troy, a nurse-practitioner who runs a medical acupuncture and integrative family practice in Kettering, won as a medical professional.
“We have such wonderful caregivers in so many categories, we wanted to find a way to honor them,” explains Terry Carey, grassroots manager for the American Cancer Society, which sponsors the awards along with Hospice of Dayton.
Snyder lost her mother, Linda Nauroth, to inflammatory breast cancer last February after a battle that began in 2004. She accepted the award wearing a T-shirt with the name of the 40-member Strides team that honored her mom: “Linda’s Family and Friends Proudly Walking.”
Nominator Ellen Wicinski, Snyder’s aunt, commended Angela for “her years of dedication to her mother and all the time and sacrifice she put into prolonging her mother’s life and giving her mother hope.”
Wicinski said when Linda’s doctors basically gave up hope, her daughter was determined to find other treatment alternatives. She eventually persuaded her mother to seek treatment at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Ill.
“They explored new chemotherapy and radiation treatments that helped keep the cancer under control,” says Wicinski. “Angela made countless trips to Zion with her mother, went to every doctor appointment and dedicated her life to helping her mother. She even moved back from Louisville where she was pursuing her master’s degree so that she and her family could spend as much time with her mother as possible.”
Dr. Ronald Fletcher nominated Stacy Christopher for the Caregiver Award, citing her use of acupuncture and other complementary alternative therapies for treating breast and other cancer patients. In addition to developing a non-estrogen cream for vaginal irritation, she has also worked with Kettering Hospital to develop a pain management program.
This year, Christopher herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I thought cancer happened to everyone else but me,” she says, admitting the diagnosis shook her “to the core of my being.”
“The whole evolution of this ‘Thing’ called cancer humbled me beyond all sensibilities. But in the end, I can say that it has been my greatest spiritual teacher. I am still learning.”
If you have someone you would like to nominate for next year’s Caregiver Awards, contact Terry Carey at the American Cancer Society, at terese.carey@cancer.org or call (888) 227-6446, ext. 5010.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2440 or MMoss@DaytonDaily News.com.
The Pink Paper
Join the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Saturday, Oct. 15 at Fifth Third Field. > Find out how to participate
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